In recent years, in trains, it has become general practice, for the convenience of passengers, to provide operational information and the like with a video on displays installed in the cars in addition to audio guidance from the train crew (see Patent Literature 1).
In a train, train information, such as operational information, is managed by train-information managing apparatuses. The train-information managing apparatuses are installed in respective cars of the train and connected so as to be capable of communicating with one another in order to share train information (see Patent Literature 1).
The train-information managing apparatuses hold train guidance data as part of the train information. The train guidance data is data set before the train starts its operation and is data including, for example, the destination, stops, estimated times of arrival at stations, estimated times of departure from stations, train type, and door opening-side information for the stops. In the train, it is possible to perform display guidance via the displays by using, the train guidance data.
In the display guidance in a train, the door opening side at a stop is sometimes displayed. Specifically, before arriving at the next station, for example, on the displays installed in the door lintel sections of the car, door opening and closing guidance is performed by displaying whether the doors below the displays are to open or the doors on the opposite side to open (see Patent Literature 1). Because the door opening-side information at a stop is displayed to passengers beforehand, the passengers can move to the door opening side before arriving at the station. Consequently, the passengers can smoothly get off the train. Therefore, it is possible to suppress occurrence of a departure delay. The door opening-side information is given in conjunction with platform information indicating which platform at a stop the train will enter.
In the door opening-side information included in the train guidance data, the door opening side is sometimes “undecided” depending on the stop. This is because the platform that the train enters is not decided beforehand depending on the stop. Concerning stations where the door opening side is not decided in advance and is undecided (a door opening-side undecided station), the door opening-side information included in the train guidance data is set as “undecided”. Therefore, when the train departs from the station immediately preceding the door opening-side undecided station, the conductor manually inputs and sets, in the train-information managing apparatus, the latest door opening-side information for the next station obtained from outside the train. Consequently, the door opening side at the door opening-side undecided station is determined. Therefore, it is possible to display the door opening side on the displays.